When it was first suggested that a Palestinian state would be nothing more than a terrorist-run entity, people scoffed at the idea. But now, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas has offered to share power with Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Both are extremist terrorist factions committed to Israel’s destruction. Both enjoy widespread popular support among the Palestinian “we’re not all terrorists, it’s a stereotype” people:
In an attempt to persuade Hamas and other radical Palestinian factions to agree to a temporary cease-fire with Israel, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas offered to give the groups political representation in a newly formed body called the unified national leadership.
Abbas, who met with leaders of all the Palestinian factions in Gaza City Tuesday and Wednesday night, told them that PA Chairman Yasser Arafat agreed to form a unified national leadership within the PLO.
Abbas had a critical choice to make. He could confront Hamas and the other terrorist factions head-on, or he could capitulate to them. It looks like he chose the latter, and this is the worst possible news for the Palestinian people, who are being relegated to live under terrorist leadership for a long time in the future. Now, these terrorists will be given legitimacy in the Palestinian government:
Hamas leaders said following Tuesday’s talks with Abbas that they might consider a proposal that restricts terrorist attacks to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Abdel Aziz Rantisi, one of Hamas’s top officials who participated in the discussions, said his movement is studying the proposal according to which it would halt its suicide attacks inside Israel but continue targeting IDF soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Abbas himself has been quoted on many occasions making this distinction between innocent lives on one or the other side of the “green line”. Apparently if you live in Tel Aviv, your life is worth more than if you live in Efrat.
The US government has been propping up Abbas, and will probably live to regret this, as he is making it clearer by the day that he intends to give the terrorists full reign and control over Palestinian society. I wish it were different for them. I wish they could break free of this oppressive leadership and institute a government willing to make concrete steps towards peace. I have untold sympathy for the millions of Palestinian people who keep falling victim to corrupt leaders that throw them at the mercy of the terrorist groups.
But my sympathy doesn’t extend so far as to excuse terrorism and murder of innocent Israelis. Only the Palestinian people can decisively change their society by choosing en masse to reject Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and their terrorist ilk. And this doesn’t look like it’s going to happen anytime in the near future.